July 10th, 2005

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Travel
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My Theory on Bed and Breakfasts

Many years ago, I used to work at Tourism Victoria. Because I did reservations and completed tours of lots of accomodations, I regularly got to meet B & B owners. My time there, combined with subsequent stays at B & Bs in North America and Europe, have laid bare a truth:

If you open a B & B, you want to talk to people. Specifically, you want to talk to your guests.

There’s absoloutely nothing wrong with this–it just isn’t my bag. I seek complete anonymity in my accomodation choices. The less I communicate with the staff, the better. The first time I discovered express checkout was a red-letter day in Darren’s world.

Needless to say, I don’t stay in B & B’s very often anymore.

Comments: 3 Responses so far

Olaf Gradin
July 11th, 2005
7:48 am

Too true. My wife feels similarly to you in this regard, though I don’t share the same aversion. I like people, generally speaking, and seek their company. Bed and Breakfast’s (or “Bread-n-Breakfast” in the south U.S.) cater to that trait. I do draw the line however, at the threshold of my room. I expect not to be bothered in there unless I should request a wake-up call of some sort.

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Derek
July 11th, 2005
9:30 am

Bed-and-breakfast vacations are as different from hotels as camping is. Just like some people don’t like camping, it makes great sense not to like B&Bs too—or to prefer them. And of course, Darren’s self-publicized hopelessness at small talk doesn’t help, I’m sure.

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Darren James Harkness
July 13th, 2005
9:42 am

We gave up on the B&B experience when we had a horrific experience at a B&B in Saskatoon. The owner gave us supreme hell for showing up late (we actually showed up an hour earlier than I said we would when making the reservation), was surly when we asked if there was a room with a shower, hid her (friendly) dog away from us as though we were axe murderers, and was derisive when we asked for a yellow pages so we could find a hotel for the next night.

The coup-de-grace was when we opened the door the next morning and found a plate of cold pancakes left on the floor in front of our door.

[Reply]

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